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MINNEAPOLIS - On Thanksgiving night in Minneapolis, the season of giving has never been needed more.

"There's so many that we serve. I don't know how it could get better," said Jan Bloom with Harbor Light Center - Salvation Army.

Though thankful for the money she has, Bloom, the food services director at Harbor Light, says she will have fewer dollars in her budget to work with come the New Year.

"It will be really tight next year," she said.

That's why she has to get creative with the food she does have, like buying items that can be used in a variety of ways for multiple days. And why she relies on people like the dozen or so volunteers at Richard Green Central Park Community School on Thursday.

"We box the food up and take it over to Harbor Light - Salvation Army so they can have some home cooked meals," said volunteer Bruce Williams.

Those meals will be gobbled up almost faster than they were packed, because at Harbor Light 1,000 meals are served every day.

And the need isn't just great in Minneapolis. At Mom's Food Shelf in St. Paul the demand is so great, organizers have been forced to put people on a waiting list for the first time in its history.

"The economy is still pretty rough," said Thomas McConnell.

While the numbers tell us the economy is improving, it hasn't hit the people McConnell sees every day.

He knows what it is to be in need. He lives at the Harbor Light, but now works at the Salvation Army helping others who've been where he has.

"I was on that side with them," he said. "If you come down here, you see people being loved, you see people being cared for."